Projected Need for Informal Caregivers in Next 10 to 20 Years

9 Ms Carrie Tan asked the Minister for Health (a) whether the Ministry has projected any figures for the anticipated increase in informal caregivers needed over the next 10 to 20 years as the population ages; (b) if so, what are the projected figures; and (c) how will the Government build up the capacity and capability of care workers to relieve the load on family caregivers.

The Senior Parliamentary Secretary to the Minister for Health (Ms Rahayu Mahzam) (for the Minister for Health): Mr Deputy Speaker, based on the Ministry of Manpower's (MOM) 2022 Labour Force Survey, about 90,300 residents outside of the labour force cited caregiving responsibilities as the main reason for not working. Twelve thousand four hundred of these caregivers were looking after their aged, ill or disabled parents.

As our population ages, more seniors will need care and there will be more caregivers who may need support. To prepare for this, we have strengthened support for caregivers, such as through the recent enhancement to the Home Caregiving Grant. The Government has also scaled up the capacity for aged care services, such as home and day care services, over the years to meet the needs of seniors. We are reviewing the aged care landscape to better anchor care in the community and support seniors to age well at home. These changes will help to relieve the burden on family caregivers.

To enable these improvements, the Government will continue to build up the capacity and capability of care workers. The Ministry of Health (MOH) and the Agency for Integrated Care (AIC) have helped community care organisations attract and retain manpower through schemes to support local recruitment, branding of the sector and salary enhancements. Providers can also access manpower training initiatives under AIC, such as study awards and training courses offered by learning institutes.

Mr Deputy Speaker: Mr Yip.

Mr Yip Hon Weng (Yio Chu Kang): Thank you, Mr Deputy Speaker. I thank the Senior Parliamentary Secretary for her response. Will MOH consider spearheading and organising a system of micro-jobs at the local community level to encourage caregiving, especially to incentivise retired seniors to take out some of these jobs?

Ms Rahayu Mahzam: There are various efforts that we are looking into. This is something that we can consider. Yesterday, I had explained to this House that we are also trying to look at how we can get more seniors to volunteer and these may be some avenues that we can explore.

Mr Deputy Speaker: Ms Carrie Tan.

Ms Carrie Tan (Nee Soon): Thank you, Mr Deputy Speaker. I would like to add on with two supplementary questions. One is regarding the Home Caregiving Grant. We appreciate that there is an enhanced grant to help defray the costs and expenses of caregiving. However, it is not an income replacement or an income support to the caregivers themselves who are struggling with this issue of lack of income because they had to give up their jobs. Case in point – I recently have a resident who feels very adamant that he should not be taking his mother's money because the Home Caregiving Grant is technically given to the care recipient and there are those amongst our residents who do not feel like it is right for them to take their mother's money or their parents' money when that amount needs to go for paying for the expenses of caregiving.

So, would MOH take serious consideration of "Carefare", which is the income supplement scheme that I proposed – three years running and every single Budget – that we need to look into supporting with some income for the full-time caregivers who have no choice but to become full-time caregivers to their aged parents?

My second supplementary question is, given the recent emergence of innovative home-based care services like the one that appeared in the newspapers, the social enterprise called Red Crowns, although it did not appear in the newspapers for a very good reason, would MOH be actively looking into supporting alternative models of community-based care that can offer Singaporeans a wider variety of homecare options for their parents?

Ms Rahayu Mahzam: I thank the Member for her passion and interest in this. I know that this is an issue that has been raised, especially in our conversations on women's development, and it is of concern. However, when we talk about supporting, from the Ministry's perspective as to how we support the caregiving services, there are some considerations that we have to take into account.

We see the family as the first line of defence and we need to ensure that we are advocating for the right behaviours and there are also concerns about the fiscal sustainability of the approaches that we take in this. As Members are aware, the Government is already providing a lot of support – and multiple tiers of support – for healthcare services and the support to caregivers. The caregivers can tap on their MediSave, they can tap on their subsidy schemes and their grants, and a lot of this is really targeted at those who actually need the help the most. So, we do need to think carefully about changing this model and approach. I think we remain open to reviewing the different approaches to support caregivers, but we have to look at this in the context of the whole support that we are giving to the family, in respect of caregiving.

On the question in respect of the different models, under the refreshed action plan for successful ageing, we are already exploring with different models. We are developing the Active Ageing Centres within the communities. We are investing quite a bit in community care and we are also looking at how to enhance the support for home caregiving services.